There’s a video on the internet of a kangaroo hopping down the street in deserted downtown Adelaide Australia and there are photos of other animals that have taken to roaming urban streets now that many people are staying at home. I thought of these things as I drove downtown today. Not because I saw animals. Not because the streets were quiet and empty. No, instead I wanted to compare these animal sightings to the proliferation of orange and black traffic cones as well as dump trucks and other machinery. It seems like the city has taken this time to block more lanes for construction than usual – I may be imagining things but I doubt it.

below: Driving east on Adelaide

below: Demolition on Jarvis

below: Maud Street

below: Lombard Street

below: I think that they are looking at me but how can I be sure?

My destination this morning was Graffiti Alley. There were no tourists there today but there were trucks blocking the alley. More construction nonsense.

below: In fact there were two trucks

below: A new Nick Sweetman mural – a purple rhinoceros

below: This mural is not new but it is the first time that I have seen it with no cars parked beside it.

below: Graffiti Alley now tests positive for the novel coronavirus, the green variety.

below: KFC sits empty. That’s not a coronavirus victim – it was empty before we all started staying home.

below: A message from 525 and 523, Stay Safe! (actually it’s from T-bonez).

I have accumulated a small collection of slaps, stickers, and small paste-ups, that I have seen around the city over the past couple of months. This collection has grown large enough to warrant its own blog post. So here they are….

below: Contributions from Paranoid, Cherry Whine, and feelings boi. This is the oldest photo in this post; it dates back to TIFF in September. The rabbit poster was a promotion for one of the TIFF movies, Resin.

below: A bunch of words. Honest. Question authority over and over again. Wants to be healthy and happy? Money first. Capitalism. Put them altogether and what do you have?

below: Nice to see that there are still some Rob Ford faces around. He shares this sign with many others including a lovebot, a deluxo xyz, and a blue skull.

below: Time may be a human construct but I’m still tired – sitting in the bottom corner with a head full of flowers, by Sketch Nate.

below: Fake Canada postage stamps as graffiti. An interesting idea. Each of the little red maple leaves on the stamps has a letter in it, P A W. Is this the artist’s initials?

below: Many slaps here – On the bottom tight is one from Pestilencia Worldwide with two of their characters, Ratanic and Scumby. Bottom left – an Urban Ninja Squadron tbonez turned barber. Nixon, lines and shapes by The Forge Fury, and freewill are in the center, and a person hides behind a cute cat mask by Sketch Nate.

below: Another Urban Ninja Squadron, this time with The Forge Fury (aka David Baron) and screaming ‘Your Mom’. Also, Fascism shall be destroyed.

below: These faces, either with eyes missing, or eyes added on top, or some variation on that theme, have sprung up all over the place. These are two of the small ones that I have seen. You can see more of Jeremy’s work on instagram.

below: Lots of silly faces with Urban Ninja Squadron loser, and a cat on its 9th life by Sketch Nate. As for the top poster, so much for Sketch Rat.

below: Urban Ninja Squadron with a playing card Lovebot, the lovebot of hearts.

below: Tbonez with dunzo on top -more of TCF, The Chosen Few. The Forge Fury on the bottom.

below: And now Urban Ninja with Ratanic from Pestilencia Worldwide. I am getting the sense that this a rather incestuous group in that they all know each other and cross pollinate each other’s work.

Over the past few weeks I’ve seen a number of new pasteups of people – or at least they are new to me. The first three are ones that I spotted in Graffiti Alley yesterday. I am not sure if they are portraits of actual people. You can see more of her work here on instagram.

The other series of portraits that I have seen are of musicians. I do not know who the artist is.

below: Woody Guthrie with his fascist killing guitar. He is on Queen West near Graffiti Alley.

below: Gord Downie outside number 28. He is near Ossington and Dundas.

below: Joni Mitchell is also on Queen West.

below: A younger Leonard Cohen

The last person is just someone weird pasted onto a door. I don’t think that he’s anyone in particular. He seems to have a beard and a high collar but I could be wrong!

The next time you’re walking around downtown you can try people watching too!